Fox Interested In Firefly Revival, With A Catch

Joss Whedon's short-lived sci-fi series Firefly is the quintessential example of a TV show cancelled too soon, but there's an outside shot it could get a new lease on life. There's just one catch.

While speaking at the TCA 2017 event, Fox's Broadcasting President of Entertainment David Madden was asked about the prospects of potentially bringing the 2002 series back to life. Considering the network already had a hit with The X-Files revival, and the new season of Prison Break is expected to find success, it's no surprise the network would want to finally get back into business with the crew of the Serenity. So what's the hold up? Madden said they would only consider the project if Whedon was attached to run the new season. Which is smart, because Whedon was the architect of that universe and fans would be able to tell if it's not authentic.

Back when Whedon made Firefly in the early 2000s, he was a small scale TV producer riding some buzz from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. Now he's an accomplished film director who helped quarterback the Marvel Cinematic Universe after helming The Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron, and can work on pretty much whatever he wants. Fresh off his Marvel contract, Whedon is reportedly focusing on smaller projects, with his next film a mysterious World War II horror story.

In the past, Whedon has shown some interest in potentially reviving Firefly, but said he would only do it if he could reassemble the core cast. Star Nathan Fillion spent the last decade headlining ABC's Castle, but that series has now wrapped. Fellow co-stars Gina Torres, Morena Baccarin, Summer Glau, Jewel Staite, Adam Baldwin and Sean Maher are all bigger names now than they were then. Though, none of them seem to have something so big on their schedules that it would preclude a well-scheduled shoot for a limited series run. But, those are still a whole lot of balls in the air that would have to land just right.